The Way of the Brother Gods (7 page)

Malja looked at the crews working on the Dish and tried to absorb all that Harskill had said. He waited without a word. At length, she said, "If this is all true, then why have you been helping Cole build this thing."

That odd grin returned to Harskill's lips. "I haven't. That is, she doesn't know it, but I've done all I could to impede her progress. I had hoped when I sabotaged her last experiment at that little town, she would have given up. I almost succeeded. But then she found this place."

Malja grimaced as if she had bit into a rotten apple. "Why would you tell me these things? You've just met me."

"Because you are Gate. You weren't raised as such, but deep within you, you are Gate. I know that soon enough you will understand who we are and thus, who you are. I have no fear to reveal these things to one of my own. That's why I left Cole's journal at the mansion for you to find. You were bound to come looking for her, and I thought the journal might ease you into all of this better. Besides, we Gate are powerful. If you want to run off and warn Ms. Watts, go right ahead. It won't matter."

"I won't say anything. Not when you caused an entire town to be destroyed to protect your secret."

"An unfortunate but necessary outcome."

"How was that necessary?"

"Because those of the Gate have a strict purpose. Understand this now before you cast judgment. We have been scattered across the infinite worlds, traveling from one to another, making sure no other world suffers our fate."

"You insure that you're the only ones who can use portals."

"It's not selfish, I assure you. Not only do we protect worlds from destroying themselves, but we protect worlds from worlds. There are numerous places out there that are filled with horrible, evil creatures. Should they get control over a portal, they would embark on a mad attempt to take over everyone. World upon world would be lost to war and all the horrors that go with it. We stop that from happening."

Malja crossed her arms. "You didn't stop it here."

A flash of hurt crossed Harskill's face, and for that, Malja was thankful. "There are not a lot of us left," he said. "We can't be everywhere. And we make mistakes. After we missed the first portal here, we saw the destruction that happened and figured you wouldn't be able to do it again for centuries. We moved on. I only noticed this world again because of the short proximity of time between attempts to open a portal."

"And you came to stop us?"

"Exactly. If I do this right, Ms. Watts will determine that safely opening a portal is not possible and she will abandon future efforts. The problem I've encountered, however, is that Ms. Watts is tenacious to a degree I had not anticipated."

"And if you can't convince her?"

Harskill shrugged. "Then I'll have to kill her and destroy any record she made of her work." Without realizing it, Malja must have made a face because Harskill said, "You need to understand that it is not our desire to thoughtlessly kill people. We try to solve these problems as non-violently as possible."

"Then just bring her up here and tell her everything you've told me. Cole's a very smart woman."

"She'll never give up. Not that way. Knowing that we exist and the extent to which we've advanced would only make her more determined. Think about yourself. If someone told you not to do something for your own good —"

Malja laughed.

"Exactly," Harskill said. "Besides, we've tried to be open in the past. The results are rarely positive. That is, if you follow the strict rules of the Gate."

That tension returned to Malja, that sense of something unsettling underneath. "You don't follow the rules?"

"Not anymore. The goal of the Gate is to be the caretaker of all worlds. We are the protectors and the controllers. The Gate believe that we should stop there, but after traveling these worlds and seeing how few contain anyone with even reasonable intelligence, I know we can be so much more than caretakers. We far surpass all others in knowledge, in technology, in magic. We have gifts that can bring peace and prosperity to all. And we can crush with ease those who stand in our way or threaten the worlds with blood conflicts and unbridled atrocities. We can be the true gods of the universes." Harskill's face brightened with his words. He started to speak again but faltered. He closed back up, glancing around as if afraid someone might have heard him. With an embarrassed chuckle, he put out his hand. "You have been lost to us for so long and we never even knew. Now that you have been discovered, I can show you the wonders of the worlds. But before I can do that, I need your help in stopping Ms. Watts from using the Dish. Please, will you help me?"

A high-pitched noise squawked from a mesh circle on the post by the stairwell. "Malja?" Cole's voice — fuzzy and distorted — called out. Harskill brushed past Malja, clearly annoyed at the disruption, and pushed the single red button next to the mesh.

"This is Harskill. Malja's here with me."

He gestured for Malja to come over. She put her mouth close to the mesh and said, "Cole?"

Harskill let go of the button, and Malja heard Cole's voice. "Have Harskill bring you down to the Infirmary. Fawbry and I have Tommy here and ... just come down here. You've got see what's happening to him."

Chapter 8

Malja left Harskill, hurrying down the stairs, skipping as many as she could without falling, and worked her way through the long series of halls until she reached the main entrance. From there she followed instructions Harskill had given her before she left the lip of the Dish. A few people walked the halls doing whatever business they had. They got out of Malja's way, looking at her with concern or confusion.

When she burst into the Infirmary, Cole and Fawbry stood against the back wall, watching Tommy as if he were a dangerous creature. The room had two rows of cots and several devices that Cole, no doubt, had made. One of them glowed orange and gave off heat. Another beeped every few seconds and had numbers on its screen. Above Fawbry's head was a monitor displaying the main gate and several hallways. On the other side of the room, Tommy floated. Catching her breath, Malja walked toward the boy, and she saw what had caused Cole's urgent call.

Dozens of snake-like appendages had grown out of Tommy's arms. They started around the elbow, and a few reached to his wrist. They wriggled back and forth as if attempting to escape his body, but they never appeared able to detach from his arm. Worse — Tommy's head had angled back with his mouth open, and a line of drool streamed down his cheek.

"I-I think," Fawbry said, his voice shaking as much as Malja's heart, "this has something to do with Barris Mont being inside him."

"Don't get too close," Cole said. "If Fawbry's right, those tentacles could link you with Barris Mont's mind just like they would've when he had his own body."

"Except it's Tommy's mind, isn't it?"

"It is. But all that Tommy's been through recently, and what I saw when I was with you in the mountains, suggests that Barris Mont is more than just a presence inside Tommy. He truly shares that boy's body and mind."

As Cole and Fawbry talked, Malja watched Tommy closely — searching for any sign, any flicker of the boy she had spent so much time protecting. The things on his arms made the sickening sound of wet innards sloshing from an open wound, and the smell reminded her of an enemy's bowels let loose in battle. This all started after Tommy had healed her. Had she caused this? She turned away, hoping her face didn't look as tortured as she felt inside.

"It's been a few years since Barris Mont entered him," she said. "We've seen bits of Barris surface before, but nothing like this. If Tommy's been able to keep control of himself for all that time, why would it change now?"

"Dear me, if I knew that, I'd be able to do something to help, now wouldn't I?" Cole said. "Perhaps there's something Barris Mont wants or needs. Perhaps he's always been fighting for control all these years and Tommy is finally weakening. Perhaps Tommy is the one doing this, somehow permitting Barris Mont access to his body. At this point, we can't really know."

"Then what do we do?"

Cole walked up to Malja and offered a patronizing pout. "Oh sweetie, it's possible that there's nothing we can do. The only persons I ever knew who could handle this sort of thing were Jarik and Callib, and well, they're no more."

A deep clunk echoed and the lights went out. Several of the devices continued to operate but most of them also died. The heating device dimmed but managed to keep going, providing an orange hue to the otherwise dark room.

Cole raised her head toward the ceiling. "The brother gods must hate me. That's the fifth power disruption in the last three days." She let out a resigned sigh. "Y'all just sit tight here. I've got to go fix this."

Fawbry said, "I'll go with you. I'm sure you can use some help."

Cole smiled. "That's kind, but you may not want to. This project requires a lot of power, and the only source I've found is an old magic depository. There are so many wires and junctions and places for problems to occur."

"Why wouldn't I want to see a relic like that? I've only ever heard about those things. They were used before the Devastation to store up magic-produced power, right? Kind of like a safeguard in case the magicians all went on strike."

"It is fascinating. But it's also underneath the ground through several long sewer tunnels. I'm sure you wouldn't want to walk through all that."

"Sewer tunnels?"

"Long tunnels that were built to dispose of all the human waste created in a city."

Fawbry turned green. "Oh." Then he shrugged. "If that's what I've got to do, then that's what I've got to do. It'll be wonderful, er, that is, interesting having you show me this old technology."

The genuine joy that flashed across Cole's face surprised Malja. It showed her that all the grins and smiles she had seen before were empty. They weren't lies so much as a brave face. Something was wrong with Cole, something she hid from everyone — Malja felt certain of that.

"You'll know when we've fixed it. The lights'll come back on," Cole said with her fake smile back in place. "Come on, now, Faw-Faw. Let's go." She took him by the hand and led him out into the dark hall.

Malja was alone. Not literally, though, since Tommy — and to some extent, Barris Mont — hovered nearby. She watched him in silence for awhile. The snaking tendrils coming from his arms never stopped moving, and his head never changed its uncomfortable position.

"It's not fair," she growled between clenched teeth. "Not fair at all. Kryssta? Korstra? Any of you brother gods actually out there? Because if you are, you best change the way you've been doing things. Look at this boy. You allowed him to be a slave, be abused, be exploited by a bunch of soulless fools. And when I saved him, you left him so damaged that when given the chance, he chose to stay with me. That's how screwed up this world is. A sweet boy wants to stay with a killer like me. What good are gods if this is the kind of thing you allow? You should have to answer for that."

She sat on the edge of one cot and rested her chin on her fists. She looked at the boy and fought against the tears that wanted to gush from her. "Tommy? You in there at all? I wish you were able to talk with me. You've always been a smart boy and I've been very confused lately. Harskill just makes it worse. If even a little of what he said is true, then what am I? Some protector of worlds? That doesn't seem right. How could I protect an entire world when I can't even protect you? Seems like the only thing I've ever been able to do right is kill. And now Cole is in trouble with Harskill and she doesn't even know it. I don't know what's going on in Fawbry's mind. He should be hating Cole for the loss of his hand, but he acts all smitten with her."

Stretching her arms, she stood and pulled out Viper. She looked at the well-maintained blade and thought of some the battles she lived through.
It was much easier when it was just us two, just trying to kill my fathers. I understood things back then. Now, I don't even understand people.

That thought resonated in her, dancing across her skin with a chill — she really didn't understand the world around her. It seemed the more people she had let into her life, the more complex and painful life had become.

But she could hear Uncle Gregor as he stood over a bowl peeling potatoes and carrots. His deep voice rambling on from thought to thought in a never-ending stream of education. "Too many people," he would say, "they all look for the easy way. It's always been like that. That's why we had the Devastation in the first place. If the magicians who caused all this had slowed down, taken the time to really work at what they were trying to do, the Devastation might not have happened. But they thought that they knew better, and they wanted to get to their results as fast and as easy as possible. They wanted recognition and fame. And they wanted it now. But you remember this well, nothing worth anything in this world comes fast or easy."

Malja tried to smile for Tommy but she only made her lips tremble. "I won't give up on you," she said, her voice cracking. "I know you can hear me. If you're fighting Barris Mont in there, just hold on. Keep fighting. I'm not giving up."

A loud buzz came from down the hall, and the lights popped back on. Squinting at the sudden brightness, Malja sheathed Viper and inhaled sharply. Cole and Fawbry would return soon. She only had a few moments to clear her mind and pull herself together.